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savinhill posted:Yeah, Red Knight series is entertaining. As for Polansky, yeah I enjoyed his Low Town books, I think they're a fun read, but Builders and Those Above/Below was kind of mediocre to lovely. Also I'd throw out there Sebastien de Castell's Great Coats series (a strong homage to Three Musketeers) as being loving fantastic and also really funny+witty yet fairly serious at the same time. I had a huge stupid grin on my face plowing through those the entire time. Xaris fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Jan 1, 2017 |
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Jan 1, 2017 23:35
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About 1/3 of the way through Republic of Thieves. Yea, it's a Locke Lamora book but one going through the motions.
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Jan 1, 2017 23:46
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Wolpertinger posted:I must be a plebe since I prefer modern day authors to the old famous more literary authors. Stories are stupid and prose is good actually. StonecutterJoe posted:Like, books that don't even come up as used copies if you look them up on Amazon, and they'll never get e-book versions.
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Jan 2, 2017 00:52
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I wrote a rundown of the 10 best books I read in 2016, six of which were sci-fi: https://grubstreethack.wordpress.com/2017/01/01/top-10-books-of-2016/
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Jan 2, 2017 01:03
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A human heart posted:holy poo poo imagine a book only being available in physical form You're fortunate not to have this problem, apparently, but for those of us with tiny apartments, being able to keep your entire library on a Kindle instead of four-odd bookshelves is kind of a big deal. Also really nice when it's time to move.
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Jan 2, 2017 02:22
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Llamadeus posted:I wanna point out that Earthsea is a very popular series of books mostly aimed at children and young adults. It shouldn't be rejected for being overly literary unless your bar for literary is extremely low Earthsea has vast literary quality, it's just way more readable than a lot of "literary" fiction.
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Jan 2, 2017 02:31
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StonecutterJoe posted:You're fortunate not to have this problem, apparently, but for those of us with tiny apartments, being able to keep your entire library on a Kindle instead of four-odd bookshelves is kind of a big deal. Also really nice when it's time to move. It's actually possible to get books from the library, so that you don't need to store them at home.
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Jan 2, 2017 05:15
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Wolpertinger posted:I must be a plebe since I prefer modern day authors to the old famous more literary authors. I can agree with you about Tolkien, but I really do think Wolfe's prose adds greatly to the enjoyment of his books. This is best deployed in more unusual settings with fantastic imagery where the evocative and lurid descriptions maintain interest until things start to become clear - the Solar Cycle, the Latro books, and the Wizard-Knight are the examples that spring to mind. His more grounded works suffer in comparison, and the confusion you refer to makes them rather unsatisfying to read, though there's usually something there to analyse.. The exceptions are Peace and the Fifth Head of Cerberus, which are both concise enough and are structured into relatively short segments which do interrelate but can be analysed and enjoyed independently, so that each part is digestible and the total book isn't so overwhelming it's difficult to come to grips with. And thanks for the feedback on Ken MacLeod's book, I've picked it up.
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Jan 2, 2017 05:19
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A human heart posted:It's actually possible to get books from the library, so that you don't need to store them at home. Yeah, because nobody wants to actually own books they love. You're right, Mr. Spock. Quite logical.
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Jan 2, 2017 05:30
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A human heart posted:It's actually possible to get books from the library, so that you don't need to store them at home. What's gotten you so worked up? Pretty antagonistic over a guy wanting an ebook version. Ebooks are fantastic, readability, ability to edit, weight, portability; a digital library is as good or better than physical media except when it comes to having stuff on display so you can impress people you have over at your home. "Yeah, baby, that's my signed Jim Davis Omnibus  "
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Jan 2, 2017 06:47
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StonecutterJoe posted:You're fortunate not to have this problem, apparently, but for those of us with tiny apartments, being able to keep your entire library on a Kindle instead of four-odd bookshelves is kind of a big deal. Also really nice when it's time to move.  . If I lose my copy of Moderately Obscure 70's Sci-Fi, I'll have to start trawling used bookstores from here to Chicago.
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Jan 2, 2017 07:04
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Oh please. I'm a big ebook fan but they pretty clearly are not capable of some of the things physical books can do. Physical books are much easier to flip through quickly, annotate, etc. Plus the aesthetics of holding the book itself, the cover, the weight, are clearly valuable to some people even if you don't care about them.
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Jan 2, 2017 07:05
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I prefer real books because all the nice tangible qualities, but my giant kobo ereader definitely wins out for reading like a 500-600 page novel.
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Jan 2, 2017 07:07
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Maps in science fiction novels, and inserted graphics (such as Stormlight) are garbage in ebook format.. you usually can't zoom on them, and they tend to not be rotation friendly even on a big tablet. That said, I prefer ebook even without an audible option.
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Jan 2, 2017 07:13
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Twenty years from now printed fiction books are going to have the same status that vinyl records have today. Weird, bulky, inconvenient things with strangely dedicated hipster following that are really into them for reasons that normal people don't understand or care about.
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Jan 2, 2017 07:13
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Nippashish posted:Twenty years from now printed fiction books are going to have the same status that vinyl records have today. Weird, bulky, inconvenient things with strangely dedicated hipster following that are really into them for reasons that normal people don't understand or care about. They won't because they're a dumb gimmick and most books worth reading aren't available as ebooks. Drifter posted:What's gotten you so worked up? Pretty antagonistic over a guy wanting an ebook version. i don't know why you think any of the posts i've made in here are antagonistic
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Jan 2, 2017 07:20
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I'm not to keen on ebooks myself but I think he's right here. Ebook sales have gone through the roof year after year and all other media are migrating to computers and stuff too. Anyway, only weird hipsters care about books being actually good.A human heart posted:Stories are stupid and prose is good actually. Nice to see you defending Tolkien for a change 
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Jan 2, 2017 07:35
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A human heart posted:They won't because they're a dumb gimmick and most books worth reading aren't available as ebooks. Your posting in general is pretty weird and negative so maybe it's just an aura you carry around with you
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Jan 2, 2017 07:36
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A human heart posted:They won't because they're a dumb gimmick and most books worth reading aren't available as ebooks. You will be one of the hipsters.
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Jan 2, 2017 07:40
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Nippashish posted:You will be one of the hipsters. 
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Jan 2, 2017 07:49
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So what you guys are saying is that i will be able to sell my 3€ paperbacks for 300 Trump dollars to discerning clients.
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Jan 2, 2017 11:14
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can you imagine all those sci fi space heros lugging 5 40lbs boxes of mushed up tree with ink squirted on em into orbit? hellllll no. Eventually all the people who like paper books are going to be dead and the ones who read ebooks are going to be in control.
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Jan 2, 2017 11:45
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Baloogan posted:can you imagine all those sci fi space heros lugging 5 40lbs boxes of mushed up tree with ink squirted on em into orbit? hellllll no. space wars will be waged to deforest entire worlds in search of the perfect paper.
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Jan 2, 2017 12:06
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While enslaving the space squids for ink production. Some mil sci author will write a book where the squids are the real racists.
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Jan 2, 2017 12:34
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The ink is sentient.
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Jan 2, 2017 12:36
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90s Cringe Rock posted:they're in the future, they have advanced technology like 3d printing which will enable them to produce 2d printers, to make REAL books. There was a proposed technology in the late 80s/early 90s where you could go to a bookstore and order a book printed and bound (in paperback) on the spot (well, in several minutes, at least). That way, you wouldn't have to order the book and the bookstore could cut down on physical inventory since no book would ever go out of print. Apparently, it exists now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q946sfGLxm4 Mister Kingdom fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Jan 2, 2017 |
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Jan 2, 2017 14:41
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Safety Biscuits posted:I'm not to keen on ebooks myself but I think he's right here. Ebook sales have gone through the roof year after year and all other media are migrating to computers and stuff too. Except they've been dropping for a couple of years now. It turns out a fair few people will go for a physical book when it costs the same as (or is cheaper than) an eBook.
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Jan 2, 2017 15:16
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The main reason an ebook will never replace a normal book is if you swat a fly with an e-reader you can break the screen.
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Jan 2, 2017 15:26
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The Glumslinger posted:Does the third book get better? I gave up on that one a bit in since I hadn't loved the second one. I really enjoyed the first one a lot, but I feel like each subsequent book kept adding baggage that took away from the story Yes, the second book is generally considered the weakest part of the series. I'd definitely say check out the third and see if it hooks you again. It'll depend on what, exactly, you liked about the first book and what you didn't like about the second. It's never going to stop being an off-brand retelling of the French Revolution with magic and demons, and it's never going to go back to being as much of a military procedural as it was during the original (I figure Wexler thinks he's drawn as much from that well as there was to draw). The main problem I had with book 2 was pacing. There were just far too many plotlines running in parallel, and far too little time spread too thinly between them. That is not a problem that recurs.
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Jan 2, 2017 15:33
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Chairchucker posted:The main reason an ebook will never replace a normal book is if you swat a fly with an e-reader you can break the screen. Alternatively, you could just keep your house clean.
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Jan 2, 2017 16:19
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Neurosis posted:I can agree with you about Tolkien, but I really do think Wolfe's prose adds greatly to the enjoyment of his books. This is best deployed in more unusual settings with fantastic imagery where the evocative and lurid descriptions maintain interest until things start to become clear - the Solar Cycle, the Latro books, and the Wizard-Knight are the examples that spring to mind. In what way do the Latro books have evocative and lurid prose? They are expressly written in a workmanlike voice of a commoner/soldier, not a professional writer or poet. It's inherent to the story. They have the same style as Pirate Freedom.
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Jan 2, 2017 16:25
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flosofl posted:Alternatively, you could just keep your house clean. Ah yes, a house, as well as being the only location one ever reads, is absolutely fly proof when clean.
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Jan 2, 2017 17:15
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Why the gently caress would you want to get dead fly all over a good book anyway?
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Jan 2, 2017 18:03
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Y'all got some huge flies. EDIT: BRB inventing an e-reader with an inbuilt bug zapper.
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Jan 2, 2017 18:12
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People will never stop reading scrolls! Codex style books are a FAD!
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Jan 2, 2017 18:38
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Safety Biscuits posted:I'm not to keen on ebooks myself but I think he's right here. Ebook sales have gone through the roof year after year and all other media are migrating to computers and stuff too. Anyway, only weird hipsters care about books being actually good. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/02/11/arranging_your_books_by_color_is_not_a_moral_failure.html
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Jan 2, 2017 18:39
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coyo7e posted:Unironically, most of the hipsters I know who collect books, only do so in order to do that "Arranged by color" poo poo on their shelves - and of course to put stuff like FInnegan's Wake and Gravity's Rainbow where people can see the and assume that said hipster is literate. Jesus christ.
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Jan 2, 2017 18:43
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A friend of mine arranges her books by colour but it's mostly because that's how she most easily mentally associates them and so can easily find them. vOv
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Jan 2, 2017 19:28
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There's nothing wrong with arranging books to look pretty, especially if you do most of your reading with ebooks and only buy hardcopies if they're something you really want to own, or because they were cheap secondhand books, or you were stuck waiting for a train and your phone's battery was too low to get a few hours of reading done. There is also nothing wrong with owning eighteen full sets of Proust and leaving them scattered around the place with dog-ears and bookmarks, as long as you're doing it ironically enough.
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Jan 2, 2017 19:30
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Ornamented Death posted:Except they've been dropping for a couple of years now. It turns out a fair few people will go for a physical book when it costs the same as (or is cheaper than) an eBook. Going back to this for the second. You can real books as cheap as ebooks now???  I don't think that's going to beat the sheer convenience of going from "I want to buy a book" to reading in less than a minute for me, but if somewhere's selling books for £2~£3 apiece I want to know about it.
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Jan 2, 2017 20:00
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